Organization of needs in anorectic, bulimic, and obese college women

Central -peripheral organization of needs in women with eating disorders was investigated. Subjects included three clinical groups, totalling 50 female university students, identified as anorectic, bulimic and obese, and two nonclinical control groups, totalling 70 female students. The revised Picture Identification Test (PIT), which measures motivational aspects of Murray-based needs, was administered to all subjects. A new PIT measure, Cenper Index, showed significant differences in central-peripheral organization of needs between clinical and control groups, and among clinical eating disorder groups. The anorectic group differed most from groups on aggression and succorance needs; the bulimic group differed on abasement and defendance needs; and the obese group differed on dominance, exhibition, and gratitude needs.     

Issues in diagnosing anxiety disorders

Research progress in the anxiety disorders is predicated on a useful classification system. In this paper, we review the reliability and validity data for theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd ed. (DSM-III) anxiety disorders and discuss the salient issues associated with both the conceptualization of anxiety disorders and the diagnostic criteria offered in the DSM-III. It is concluded that the diagnostic reliability for these disorders is, overall, satisfactory. A dearth of validity data, however, hinders progress in both the diagnosis and the treatment of the anxiety disorders. Nevertheless, the DSM-III work group has proposed several changes in the diagnostic criteria for the anxiety disorders. We find some of these proposed changes helpful in that they clarify current diagnostic criteria; changes in diagnostic criteria that alter the basic classification schema, however, seem to be premature.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by MIMH Research Grant 1368.On sabbatical leave from Indiana State University.     

Assertion Training with Korean College Students: Effects on Self-Expression and Anxiety

This study examined the effects of assertiveness training on the self-expression skills of Korean college students. Results indicated a gain in such skills for males. Implications and recommendations are discussed.     

Peer Attributions and Action Plans for Underachievement: Implications for Peer Counseling

Students playing the role of peer counselors blamed failing students for their poor performances by attributing them to internal, controllable factors.     

Problem-Solving Training as Prevention with College Students

Problem-solving processes play an important role within remedial and human effectiveness models of development. This article discusses the use of preventive problem-solving training with college students.     

Why do males and females differ? Children's beliefs about sex differences

The present paper focuses on children's beliefs about sex differences and how these are related to age and gender. Seven, ten, and fifteen year olds (N=427) were asked to give explanations for their beliefs about sex differences. In strong agreement with previous research and the cognitive-developmental theoretical framework, marked age differences were found: younger children were more likely than older children to emphasize biological and physical factors. Significant gender differences were also found, especially for 15 year olds. Girls were much more likely to attribute sex differences to social factors, and boys to biological factors. These gender differences were interpreted as being indicative of different life experiences of males and females, with females being more likely to have experienced conflicts between their own values about sex-role behavior and those of society. Findings were also interpreted as being consistent with the recent emphasis on gender schema. Nevertheless, it was argued that theories of gender schema need to take more account of content—of the beliefs that people hold about sex roles—and, in particular, that more attention be given to exploring gender differences in beliefs.     

Beliefs about and experiences with battering: Women and men in two populations

A questionnaire was developed to measure beliefs about and experiences with violence in the family. Two groups of persons in two different states who had attended conferences on battered women participated in this research. Of the 177 subjects (84% women, 16% men), none of the men had been battered, yet over one-third of the women had been; more older women reported having been adult battering victims than did younger women; the women had less formal education than the men; the women in the lower educational groups were more likely to have been battered and to report fear of becoming victims; and the social service workers reported little fear of battering.     

LOREN EISELEY: RELIGIOUS SCIENTIST

Abstract. Loren Eiseley is known both as a scientist and an essayist/poet. The disillusionment with science and technology among many in the late 1950s and the search for new values in the 1960s help account for Eiseley's significance as a writer. He appears to offer a solution to mankind's contemporary disillusionment by reminding that science has limits and that intuitive, nonscientific insight is valid, especially when it is complementary to scientific knowledge. The thesis of this essay is that in content and style Eiseley writes as a religious writer in the sense that he reaffirms what is necessary for humankind to be happy and even to be "saved."     

Perceived variability and symbol use: a common language-cognition interface in children and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Analysis of two chimpanzees' conversations with their teacher during a tool-use training task demonstrated that chimps use lexigrams, a humanly devised visual symbol system, selectively to encode perceived variability; that is, they generally used their symbols to differentiate alternative possibilities or to represent change or novelty in a situation. In contrast, they tended to leave unsaid what was unchanging, repetitive, or the unique possibility in a situation. Perceived variability influenced not only which symbols were selected but also utterance length: A single dimension of variability in a situation leads to single-lexigram utterances; multiple dimensions are associated with multi-lexigram utterances. This pattern of results indicates that the absence of formal grammatical structure in chimp language does not imply that utterances beyond one word in length are either rote strings or imitations. The chimps' tendency to mention the variable while leaving the constant or redundant unsaid is, moreover, strong support for the position that their use of a humanly devised symbol system is more than a series of conditioned responses.